Garden City looks to takedown Ulysess in hopes of a homecoming victory
Photo Courtesy of Adam Shrimplin (Shrimplin Photography)
Garden City, Kan (WesternKansasNews.Com) – Week six of the Kansas High School football season has an extra wrinkle to it in Garden City tonight. The Buffaloes (4-1) will take the field for Homecoming with hopes of making it two straight wins over a (1-4) Ulysses team that has struggled recently losing four straight.
While a loss to Hays probably takes Garden City out of the WAC race they are 2nd in the west playoffs standings in 6A and tonight marks another step to the eventual goal of being able to host a playoff game from Buffalo Stadium.
After a strong second-half performance, last week vs. Liberal that included a shutout and 21 unanswered points head coach Brian Hill believes for the games ahead his team is going to have to come out strong. “I think we still need to come out stronger than we have in the past two games, we have to get back to the starts we had in the first three weeks,” Hill said after accessing his team’s performance in the last two games. In Garden City’s win over Liberal, the game was tied at halftime and it looked like a game that could go back and forth but the Garden City offense led by Senior Zack Keosengphet went to work in the 2nd half. Keosengphet would finish with 202 yards on 32 carries and a touchdown as he leads the team in both rushing yards and touchdowns with 11 on the season. If Garden City is in the win column tonight look for him to have another big game.
While Ulysses isn’t the deepest team the Buffaloes have seen this season, they are a tough out on offense with their flexbone package led by QB Justin Delgollado who has 442 yards rushing and 3 TDs, Lorenzo Gomez the FB also offers a solid option on the ground with 339 yards on 53 carries and 4 TDs.
Defensively Garden City will lean on their defensive line to get stops at the first level. Players like Dio and David Holguin alongside Rex Crotts will be important in that. Beyond that look for Garden City to bring the pressure with guys like Colin Kleystuber and Eddie Rodriguez. Ulysses has only completed 3 passes all season long and doesn’t pose a potent attack through the air.
Ultimately the key to the game will be physically up front on both sides for Garden City. “If we get the push we need upfront we will be able to play the way we want to, but it will be important to establish that early,” said Coach Hill about the main thing coming into this game for Garden City. The Buffaloes will look to follow their coach’s lead to a homecoming win that would be the 70th career win for Brian Hill at Garden City.
Western Kansas Broadcast Center will have the game live on 99.9 The Rock, as coverage gets started with the Pregame Tailgate Show live from Buffalo Stadium. Aaron Elam will host the show starting at 5:00 pm on 99.9 The Rock. Then at 6:30 pm hear pregame coverage with Baylen Hite who will be joined by Aaron Elam and Dalton Janousek from the sidelines as kickoff begins at 7 pm from Buffalo Stadium.
